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On May 10 of this year, the legend whose name is emblazoned across the back of this 662-horsepower beast passed away, making the drop-top GT500 the last car to be touched by Carroll Shelby without the help of a medium. Sadly, the majority of these monster Mustangs will likely be locked away in garages to gather dollars and dust, or rolled out to the occasional car show if they’re lucky. So what numbers will 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 Convertible owners get to brag about when talking up their prized possession? We took great joy in beating one up at the dragstrip and around our figure-eight track to find out.

We always lower our standards a bit when it comes to testing the topless version of a performance car. In most cases, the performance drop is a factor of significantly higher weight and/or an aerodynamic toll for the soft top. Luckily, the GT500 doesn’t suffer quite as much as other convertibles. The convertible, which tipped our scales at 3951 pounds, is only 80 pounds heavier than the 3871-pound coupe we tested a couple of months ago. When a vehicle weighs nearly two tons and has more than 600 hp on tap, 80 pounds is basically insignificant.

The car probably suffers an aerodynamic penalty as well, but we left my wind tunnel in my other pants, so we’re left to speculate. We also don’t have concrete numbers for chassis strength. While I doubt the convertible is as rigid as the coupe (Ford hasn’t specified how close it is), it didn’t exhibit any of the horrible tendencies normally found in compromised structures. Even with gobs of torque and sticky tires, the twist and shake we’ve experienced in topless Mustangs past wasn’t there on the street or at the track. Subjective feelings aside, the objective measurements do show a sacrifice in performance in order to satisfy your exhibitionist longings.

The GT500 has a launch control feature that makes it near effortless to blast down the 1320. Simply set your desired launch RPM, flatfoot the throttle, sidestep the clutch, and you’re off. After trying low RPM, high RPM, and everything in between, we just couldn’t get the hard launch we were able to achieve with the coupe. In the end, the convertible took 3.7 seconds to run to 60 mph, 0.2 second behind the coupe’s 3.5-second run. The coupe ran away from the convertible all the way down the track. The best performance we could eke out of the topless version in the quarter mile was 12.1 seconds at 120.5 mph. While far from slow, the roofed pony did it in 11.5 seconds at a significantly faster 125.7 mph. Is this all chassis flex, aerodynamic drag, and the equivalent of an extra Golden Retriever in weight? Probably not. The launch may be attributable to the chassis not having the same bite off the line, but the 5 mph difference in trap speed is more of a head-scratcher.

Our coupe was equipped with the track pack, which increases the GT500’s cooling capacity. But our convertible didn’t have it, and it’s possible that without the extra cooling, it suffered from a bit of heat soak by the end of the track. We can’t give a definitive answer without further testing, but this is our running theory.

Braking performance, on the other hand, was nearly identical. The topless GT500 was good for a 102-foot stop, and the coupe for a 101-footer. The figure-eight performance was close as well, but again showed the slight difference in lateral performance. The coupe ran around the twisted loop in 24.4 seconds; the convertible in 24.6. Here is the interesting difference: The coupe averaged 0.80 g in the figure eight and peaked at 0.98 g laterally, while the convertible averaged 0.82 g but topped out at the magical 1.0 g lateral acceleration. This means the coupe was pulling slightly higher g forces under both acceleration and braking, giving it a higher average g, while the convertible was able to corner harder — its higher peak accounts for its slightly higher average. The coupe may have the advantage in cooling while running laps around the track, but the convertible may have a slight advantage with its lower center of gravity. Both versions started to run out of brakes after a few hard laps.

The small percentage of GT500 convertibles driven in anger will likely find themselves on a dragstrip and not a road course, which is a bit of a shame. Around the figure eight, the GT500 was well-behaved and more responsive than its considerable weight would have you believe. Maybe more surprising, the huge power and torque numbers are easy to control. Despite a 122-horsepower advantage over the previous GT500, the 2013 model is actually easier to drive. Acceleration between turns is fast but uneventful. The power goes down easily, and once the front tires are straight, it will go down all at once with a pinned throttle. The brake bite is great on the first couple of laps and the big Mustang slows without much drama.

It is so stable, in fact, that it rewards you for carrying the brakes into the turn. Whether it’s the aggressive Torsen limited-slip differential or chassis tuning, it likes having the extra weight up front to really get turned in. The car carves the chosen line when steering is fed in smoothly. With small steering and throttle inputs, it’s neutral and has just the right amount of roll. It leans, but settles on the outside tires, and you never feel them pulling under you. Over the few irregularities in our track, the damping was ideal and allowed the car to absorb the bumps rather than be pushed around by them. Get into the throttle a little more and you start getting some yaw as rotation starts at a point right around the firewall. You know that a big jab of the right foot will turn cornering into a mid-corner donut, but with the linearity of the big, supercharged V-8, you never feel like you’re riding the edge of an explosion.

The Mustang can be muscled around. As you’re coming off the brakes, give the steering wheel a big flick and the car immediately starts to rotate. A far more careful application of throttle is required because at this point, it won’t take much to get the back tires smoking. Big, uneasy inputs can also have the opposite effect of picking up the front end and getting some understeer going. Trying to fix this with more throttle ends up in both ends sliding and running way wider than intended. It can be fun, but it isn’t the fastest way around the turn.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. Most of these GT500 convertibles will end up sitting in a parking lot on Sunday mornings with one of those creepy “time-out-dolls” leaned against the fender while the Hawaiian-shirted owner tells his story about the one time he drove the car fast. The question I heard over and over while driving this car around for a week was, “Is this the best Mustang ever?” To me, that would be the Boss 302 Laguna Seca. This one, however, did get a lot more attention, and that is what it’s about, especially the convertible.

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Horsepower

2013 Ford Shelby GT500 News and Reviews

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